Foreword

Braunschweig is the City of Science 2007; this was the outcome of the competition held by the Stifterverband für die deutsche Wissenschaft (Founders’ Federation for Science in Germany). Naturally, this is an obligation and opportunity also for the PTB to present itself still more intensively than up to now in the public eye. As a prelude to an extensive series of events in 2007, the PTB thus last year organised – so-to-say as a starter to the City of Science – the Long Night of Time (Lange Nacht der Zeit) from 28 to 29 October. This – also in the truest sense of the word – fireworks of science, culture, art and fun attracted more than 10 000 visitors – an unbelievable success which has given us and the city enormous pleasure.

The basis for these and other, in part, truly spectacular events is naturally the scientific and technical work of PTB as research institution and as national and partly also international service provider. As research institution we have become massively involved within the framework of the Initiative for Excellence of the Federation and the federal states, but unfortunately not always with the success hoped for. Independent of this, we further endeavour to reinforce and deepen the association with our university and universityexternal partners: the Berlin Neuro Imaging Center, the 7-T magnetic resonance imaging cooperation which, under the auspices of the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine, is now being launched, and the founding of the "Joint Optical Metrology Center", effected jointly with the TU Braunschweig, as well as the "Terahertz Communications Lab" are to be named here exemplarily. Furthermore, the PTB is currently working on more than 300 research projects for public or industrial customers, both domestic and foreign.

The replacement of the national Verification Act by the European Measuring Instruments Directive on 30 October went smoothly and silently in the PTB for our customers as a result of the good internal preparation and the well-targeted informational events. Punctually on 30 October, the first conformity certificate was issued in accordance with the MID, and we will also in future – of this we are convinced – have, in spite of the framework conditions altered by the MID, mainly the safety of the consumer and citizen in view as a premium goal, but thereby remaining a valuable and esteemed partner of the economy and particularly of the manufacturers and distributors of measuring instruments.

In addition to the facts and figures, the present annual report gives an account, as usual, of the work of the PTB in a representative cross section. Additional detailed information is to be found in the Internet under www.ptb.de, whereby I would particularly like to point out the information platform "PTB - Partner des Mittelstandes" (PTB - partner of SMEs), designed for small- and medium-sized businesses (SMEs).

I thank all employees of the PTB for the work accomplished and for their enduring commitment.